A set of parent-child math activities designed to help busy, working parents do math with their children as part of everyday situations such as cleaning up and making dinner included basic steps, variations, and information on working with children were developed for families with elementary grades children aged approximately 5 to 11 and distributed at a variety of workplaces to groups of parents who had differing occupations, education levels, ethnicity, and family structures. The activities had titles such as How Much is on the Floor?, How Much Longer?, What's Fair?, How Much Do We Save?, Wish List, and Number of the Day. Seven parents were interviewed 2-4 weeks after they had completed the activities with their children and the ways in which they used and adapted the activities did not appear to relate to their education, mathematical comfort and expertise, or job. The following results were noted: (1) parents used and repeated the activities that fit best with their family life; (2) parents' use of the written materials seemed related to family interaction styles; (3) parents differed in how they prepared for working with their children; (4) parents valued the concrete information on working with children, even though they didn't always use it; (5) parents occasionally added more real-life math skills to the activities; and (6) parents thought their children learned useful skills. (Contains 7 references.) (MO)

Note: In: Schmitt, M. J. and K. Safford-Ramus (Comps.) (2001). Adults Learning Mathematics-7: A Conversation Between Researchers and Practitioners. Proceedings of ALM-7, the International Conference of Adults Learning Mathematics (7th, Medford, MA, July 6-8, 2000) p. 178-182. The conference was hosted by the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy (NCSALL) at Harvard University in conjunction with the Tufts University Department of Education and the NCTM-affiliated Adult Numeracy Network.